Abandoned Spaces by Dalia Khamissy (February 5, 2010) 
(6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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Categories / Documentary Conceptual / Interiors / / Click here to open comments section, click again when done to close / 2 Comments
Curator Statement by Elie Domit
When I first saw Dalia Khamissy's series Abandoned Spaces I was very touched by her quiet yet impelling approach to documenting what ruin the violence of war brings to the homes of ordinary people. In her treatment of the subject, these spaces become like breathing entities, laid open to the viewer by the brutal removal of the membrane that separates the private from the public. They acquire the suggestiveness of the empty stage, prompting you to envision how a child would react when a bomb hits, how you would exit a place, where you would hide until the explosions subside. Looking at these images you find yourself in her shoes, trying to decipher the situation one is faced with when the senseless destruction of war strikes.
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Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
Wednesday July 12, 2006, Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers in an operation that sparked a series of attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure, civilians’ houses and natural environment. The offensive lasted for 34 days, during which I was working as the photo editor for an international news agency in its Beirut office; I only saw the conflict through the images that I edited of other photographers. The country was packed with local and international media that transmitted their stories for few weeks after the cease-fire until the world lost interest in Lebanon’s news, and the citizens, whose lives had changed forever, were forgotten. I quit my job by the end of 2006.
Summer 2007, I visited the damaged area in the south of Lebanon for the first time since the beginning of the war, almost a year later, wanting to see what had happened. I entered houses and mosques destroyed by the war; in few seconds the war had turned public what was once private. The furniture left behind witnessed of thousands of stories and memories of people who once lived there.
In my Abandoned Spaces I aimed at documenting the peace I found in every house or mosque I entered even amongst the chaos. I wanted to shoot the space and give it back its dignity. The Abandoned Spaces series is the first photography project I did after the summer war, it was my way of reconciling with photography.
Dalia Khamissy (1973) lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon.
Click weblink daliakhamissy.com or browse our archives
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